


Ignorance Is Bliss

by skywalkersamidala



Category: I Medici | Medici: Masters of Florence (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, at first it seems like it's gonna be angst but it's happy i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 03:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17910929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skywalkersamidala/pseuds/skywalkersamidala
Summary: Giuliano discovers that no one in this family ever bothers to tell him anything. Then again, he would rather never have known about this particular bit of information anyway.





	Ignorance Is Bliss

In hindsight, Giuliano really, really wished he hadn’t been home when Francesco Pazzi showed up on their doorstep stabbed half to death. And he almost hadn’t been; he was just about to sneak out to see Simonetta, was just reaching to open the door when suddenly someone on the other side started pounding on it urgently.

Giuliano jumped back, startled, before stepping forward again and opening the door. “Pazzi,” he said with a little frown when he saw Francesco standing there. He didn’t care what the rest of his family said about Francesco not being so bad, really, once you got to know him; Francesco was still a bastard in Giuliano’s opinion. It didn’t help that Lorenzo had been spending an absurd amount of time with him lately and had made him the first person he turned to in any situation, a position which Giuliano had previously held.

No, he wasn’t jealous. He just thought it was funny how Lorenzo suddenly valued a Pazzi’s opinion more than his own brother’s.

“Lorenzo,” Francesco said, sounding short of breath.

Giuliano was all prepared to make a snarky retort about how he was Giuliano, not Lorenzo, was Francesco’s eyesight suddenly impaired? But then he noticed that Francesco was swaying on his feet, clutching his side and looking woozy and very pale.

“Are…you all right?” Giuliano said uncertainly. He glanced down at Francesco’s hand, and his eyes widened as he saw that there was blood leaking out from under it. “You’re bleeding!”

“Lorenzo,” Francesco said more insistently, and then he collapsed forward onto Giuliano.

Giuliano let out a surprised _oof_ but managed to catch him, trying to steady him and keep them both from toppling over. “Lorenzo!” he called over his shoulder, his voice echoing through the courtyard in the middle of the house. “Come quick!”

He dragged Francesco fully inside and kicked the door shut behind him, then lowered him to the ground as gently as he could and knelt down beside him. Giuliano heard the sound of footsteps and a moment later Lorenzo’s voice saying, “Francesco!”

He looked up and saw his brother racing towards them, falling to his knees on Francesco’s other side. Lorenzo’s hands flew over his torso, checking for the exact location of the injury, and then he pulled his own outer tunic off over his head, leaving him only in his undershirt, and balled it up and pressed it to Francesco’s side to stop the bleeding.

Francesco looked like he was about three seconds from passing out, but his gaze managed to focus on Lorenzo. He smiled, his face suddenly turning softer than Giuliano had ever seen it, and feebly reached out to brush Lorenzo’s cheek with his hand. In any other circumstances Giuliano would have found this extraordinarily bizarre and alarming, but the entire situation was so bizarre and alarming that he barely even registered this little detail.

“Lorenzo…” Francesco said softly.

“What happened?” Lorenzo asked urgently.

“Stabbed,” Francesco murmured, his hand falling back to his side.

“Yes, we can see that,” Giuliano said. “Who did it?”

But Francesco’s eyes were fluttering shut. “No, no, stay with me!” Lorenzo said, sounding panicked. Giuliano was anxious too; yes, Francesco was a bastard, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see him bleed to death in the middle of the courtyard.

“Did he say anything to you before?” Lorenzo asked.

“No,” Giuliano said. “He just showed up at the door like this. All he said was your name.”

“My God!”

Giuliano looked up and saw that Bianca and Guglielmo had come to investigate the commotion. Bianca clapped her hands over her mouth and Guglielmo rushed to Francesco’s side. “Francesco!” he said, clasping his brother’s shoulder, but Francesco had fully lost consciousness.

“Giuliano, get a physician,” Lorenzo ordered. To Guglielmo, he said, “Let’s lie him down somewhere comfortable, you get his feet.”

Giuliano left the house as Lorenzo and Guglielmo were carefully lifting Francesco off the floor. When he returned with the physician, he found that Francesco had been settled in Lorenzo’s bedroom. Lorenzo was sitting next to the bed, but he moved away (rather reluctantly, Giuliano thought) so that the physician could examine Francesco.

The entire family had gathered by then, but Lucrezia ushered everyone out to give the physician space to work. Lorenzo and Guglielmo, however, refused to leave Francesco’s side. Giuliano paced up and down the corridor to pass the time, surprising even himself by how worried he was.

It seemed like ages before the door opened again and Guglielmo came out with the physician. “What news?” Lucrezia asked.

“The bleeding has stopped, Madonna, and I’ve stitched the wound, but he is very weak,” the physician said. “All we can do now is wait to see if he will recover.”

That was hardly reassuring. Giuliano craned his neck to see into the room; Francesco was still unconscious, Lorenzo still right by his side. “Lorenzo asked me to show him to a guest bedroom,” Guglielmo was telling Lucrezia, gesturing to the physician. “So he will be close in case Francesco’s condition changes.”

“Yes, of course.” Lucrezia led them both away, and Giuliano ducked into the bedroom.

“How is he?” he asked.

Lorenzo shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said quietly, sounding utterly broken. When he looked up, Giuliano saw that there were tears in his eyes.

He crossed the room and rested a soothing hand on Lorenzo’s shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll pull through,” Giuliano said. “He’s the stubbornest bastard I’ve ever met.”

Lorenzo almost cracked a smile, but then he looked back at Francesco and that anguished worry returned to his face. But now there was anger too. “Giuliano,” he said. “Find out who did this.”

Giuliano blinked in surprised. “What do you expect _me_ to be able to do?” he said. “Just wait until he wakes up and we can ask him what happened.”

“No. I need you to find out _now,”_ Lorenzo said, his hand clenching into a fist where it rested on his leg.

“Do you want me to just interrogate every single person who lives in Florence, or—?”

“Find the bastard who did this and bring him to me so I can tear him limb from limb!” Lorenzo spat, his voice shaking with either grief or rage, Giuliano couldn’t tell.

He stared at him for a moment, startled by the outburst. He knew Lorenzo and Francesco were close these days, but this reaction far exceeded what Giuliano would have expected. Lorenzo wasn’t like him, Lorenzo rarely let his emotions get the better of him, rarely broke down or lost his temper like this.

“In the morning, I’ll do what I can,” Giuliano said finally. “But I can’t promise that I will find any answers. Until then I’m going to get some sleep, and you should too.”

As he left the room, he spared one last glance over his shoulder and saw Lorenzo scooting his chair even closer to the bed, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind Francesco’s ear in a pointless and oddly tender gesture.

Giuliano dozed for a few hours and woke at dawn. There was no change in Francesco’s condition when he stopped in to check (Lorenzo looked like he hadn’t slept a wink), and he headed towards the center of the city to try and investigate what had happened the night before.

True to his word, Giuliano questioned as many people as he possibly could. None of them had seen Francesco involved in a fight or had any idea what he was talking about. But after two hours had passed and Giuliano was about to give up and go home to tell Lorenzo he’d tried his best, a vegetable seller had answers for him.

“I had just closed up and was going home for the night,” the man told him. “I passed by an alleyway and heard raised voices. It was getting dark—the sun had almost set by then—but I’m certain one of the men was Messer Pazzi. He was having words with another man I didn’t recognize.”

“What were they arguing about?” Giuliano asked.

“I don’t know. Something about a loan,” the vegetable seller said. “That’s not unusual, is it? Surely you bankers always have some man or another upset with you.”

“True enough,” Giuliano muttered. “What happened next?”

“I continued on my way home.”

“You didn’t think to intervene in the argument?”

“Why should I have? It was none of _my_ business,” he said defensively. “I didn’t want any trouble.”

Giuliano sighed; he couldn’t exactly fault him for that. “Did you see what the other man looked like?”

“Not very well. Dark hair. A merchant, maybe, judging by his clothes.”

“I see. Thank you for your help.”

Giuliano returned home, glad he’d managed to uncover _something_ to tell Lorenzo. The bedroom door was ajar and Giuliano was about to enter when he saw Lorenzo kneeling beside the bed, his hands clasped as if in prayer. He was whispering something too quietly for Giuliano to hear, his eyes closed and his cheeks wet with tears.

Giuliano hesitated, suddenly feeling like he was intruding on something private, and withdrew.

He returned a few minutes later and made a point of knocking on the door even though it was already slightly open. “Come in,” Lorenzo said, and Giuliano did.

He reported what the vegetable seller had said. “It sounds to me like nothing more than a client upset about something the Pazzi bank did, and reacting violently in the heat of an argument,” he said. “I doubt anyone has a particular murderous vendetta against him. But we’ll know more when he wakes up.”

Lorenzo nodded, pacing around the room as he digested the information. “Let’s hope you’re right,” he said. “Did he say whether—?”

“Lorenzo?”

The voice was very faint, but they both immediately fell silent. Lorenzo whipped around and hurried back to Francesco’s side, falling to his knees next to him as Francesco squinted tiredly up at him. Giuliano felt much more relief at seeing him awake than he would have cared to admit.

“Francesco,” Lorenzo said, sounding like he was about to cry. “You’re awake.”

“Apparently.”

“How do you feel?”

“Like I got stabbed,” Francesco said dryly.

Lorenzo let out a watery chuckle. “Back to your old self, I see. Let me get the physician—”

“I don’t want a physician,” Francesco interrupted. “I just want you.”

There it was again, that unfamiliar softness on his face as he gazed at Lorenzo. Lorenzo placed his hand on his cheek, his thumb lightly stroking his cheekbone. He leaned down and rested his forehead against Francesco’s, closing his eyes and letting out a quiet sigh that was both exhausted and relieved.

Giuliano had never been more astonished or confused in his entire life. He had no idea what was happening but he _was_ fairly certain he was not supposed to be witnessing it, so he cleared his throat loudly.

Lorenzo jumped and straightened up, his cheeks reddening as he turned to look at Giuliano. Judging by his expression, he’d forgotten he was in the room. And judging by Francesco’s expression, _he_ had never even noticed Giuliano was there at all.

“Well,” Giuliano said awkwardly. “I’ll go tell the others that he’s awake.”

And he all but ran out of there, his mind struggling to process what he had just seen.

The first person he came across was Bianca; he nearly crashed into her in his distraction. “Francesco’s awake,” Giuliano said. “And he seems to be all right.”

Bianca beamed. “Oh, that’s wonderful! Let me go tell Guglielmo—”

“Wait,” Giuliano said, catching her arm. “I saw…something…something strange.”

“What do you mean?” Bianca said, frowning.

“I—I know it’s going to sound absurd, but—” Giuliano took a deep breath, glanced around to make sure there was no one else nearby, and said in a low voice, “I think…I think there’s something going on between Lorenzo and Francesco. Something… _romantic.”_ Saying it aloud made it feel even more ridiculous. Surely he had misunderstood what he was seeing, surely there was a logical explanation.

He’d expected Bianca to gasp and demand more details, but she merely raised an eyebrow. “You only just noticed?”

“I—what?”

“They’re in love with each other, Giuliano. They have been for ages.”

Giuliano could only splutter in astonishment, and Bianca started to laugh. “How do you know this?” he demanded when he could finally form a coherent sentence.

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You can see it in the way they look at each other…” Giuliano gave her an exasperated look. “And I walked in on them once,” Bianca admitted.

“You walked in on them…doing what?” Giuliano asked, aghast, as any number of horrifying scenarios started crowding his mind.

“Just kissing,” Bianca hastened to assure him, giving his arm a comforting pat. “Lorenzo was a little embarrassed, but poor Francesco was mortified. It was quite amusing. For me, anyway. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but they swore me to secrecy.”

“Did you tell Guglielmo?”

“Well…yes,” she said. “But that’s different, he’s my husband. I couldn’t keep a secret from him if I tried. Besides, he’d already had his suspicions anyway.”

“You shouldn’t keep secrets from your brother either,” Giuliano grumbled. “To think this has been going on for God knows how long and no one had the _decency_ to tell me.”

Bianca was utterly unapologetic. “You know _now._ Happy?”

“No, I am _not_ happy,” Giuliano said mournfully. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever heard. One sibling seduced by a Pazzi is bad enough, but _both_ of them—”

“Giuliano, _there_ you are.” He looked up and saw Lorenzo rounding the corner. “I wanted to, um, explain what—oh, Bianca,” he said, stopping short. “Hello.”

“Hello. I heard Francesco’s awake?”

“Yes, Guglielmo’s with him now.”

“I’m so glad,” Bianca said, smiling.

“Me too.” Lorenzo glanced back and forth between the two of them, looking uncomfortable and seeming to sense that they’d just been talking about him. “I apologize for interrupting.”

“Oh, we weren’t discussing anything important, were we, Giuliano?”

“No,” Giuliano said, abruptly getting over his shock and dismay as he realized he’d been handed the perfect opportunity to tease Lorenzo. “Only how silly it was for me to have been jealous of Francesco.”

Lorenzo’s brow furrowed. “Jealous? What do you mean?”

“You see,” Giuliano said, smirking, “I used to think he’d replaced me, because I thought that you loved him like a _brother._ Silly of me.”

Later, he would look back on the moment fondly as one of the few times in his life he was able to put his charismatic brother at a loss for words.

**Author's Note:**

> I.........think I accidentally did an AU where Lorenzo isn't married to Clarice bc I felt bad making the poor woman get cheated on AGAIN lmao


End file.
